Shadows➟Pietro Maximoff

1- The Beginning

      The twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff tightly hold into each other as they follow Baron Strucker through the cold, dark hallways of the hidden base in Eastern Europe. The man had approached them a few weeks ago offering them the chance for revenge against Tony Stark. The man who killed their parents.

      Wanda was hesitant at first, but Pietro managed to convince her.

      As the three of them round a corner the twins glance through a window into a lab. A woman with a blindfold sits in a chair, completely still. Several tubes are connected to her, pumping a thick black liquid into her veins.

      The sight makes the twins stop to stare at the sight. Is this what is in store for them? Wanda and Pietro share a look of fear. "Ah, I see you have found project Umbra." Baron Strucker says with pride. He steps next to them and smiles down at the girl. A scientist places a mouth guard in Umbra's mouth, then steps away. With a push of a button the woman's body jerks as electricity courses through her body, her screams inaudible to them.

      "Electroshock therapy. It encourages the serum to bond with her body on a molecular level." Pietro stares at the girl, eyes wide and full of worry. Wanda looks at Strucker, fear in every inch of her features. "Is that what is in store for us?" She asks with a shaky voice. Pietro looks at Strucker hoping for the answer as well.

      "No. We have something else in mind for you two." He turns on his heel and continues on walking down the hallway. "Come along then." The twins follow along hesitantly and Pietro sends one last glance at the girl in the chair. Her head is hanging low and her body twitches with the aftermath of the electricity.

      Strucker leads them into a new room. A few people bustle about inside, but the star attraction is sat on a table in the back of this room. "This," Strucker starts as he walks up to it. The twins look at the gold scepter in awe. The blue gem on the end nearly lures them in. "Is what we have planned for you."

      Strucker stares at the staff for a moment, then turns to the twins. "We begin today. I will show you to your rooms, then someone will come to collect you." They leave the room and after a bit more walking Strucker stops outside their rooms.

      Wanda and Pietro share a look, the same thought passing through their minds. These aren't rooms. They are cells. "In you go. We don't have much-" A ruckus causes the three of them to look to the left. Two men half drag, half carry Umbra to a cell, then toss her in. Strucker stares at the men for a moment, then back at the twins. "In you get." He says gesturing to their individual cells.

      Slowly, the twins let go of each other and step into their new homes. The doors slam shut behind them and Strucker gives them a nasty smile before leaving. The twins frown and stare at the wall separating each other. This is not what they had expected. At all.

❖

      Wanda and Pietro lean against the wall between them, their heads hung low. They are scared. All these years they always had each other, but now there was a wall between them and an army of trigger happy agents outside their cells.

      Pietro reaches his arm up to the wall and knocks three times. It's a signal he and Wanda have always had. Each tap means a word. In short it means 'I love you', but in certain situations it can mean so much more. Right now it meant he was telling Wanda he's there.

      Pietro waits for a reply, then smiles softly as he gets a response. He sighs and rests his head back against the concrete wall. Suddenly his room becomes darker. The light fades until it is almost completely gone, then Pietro hears breathing. He begins standing up and looks into the shadows and swears he can see someone standing in them, staring at him.

      "Who's there?" He asks wearily. Out in the hallway shouts can be heard. The shadows begin shrinking back. "Wait." Pietro calls. The shadows freeze. "Who are you?" He asks, taking a step forward. There is a long pause then, "Don't fight them. They will hurt her."

      The shadows sink back until the light fills with light. Pietro stares in shock and shakes his head. Suddenly his cell door is pushed open and two guards walk in. They roughly grab his arms and yank him out into the hallway. Wanda's shouts can be heard echoing down the halls. "No!" Pietro shouts as he tries to break out of guard's hold.

       Pietro continues to thrash as they drag him through several hallways until he is tossed into a lab. Wanda is strapped down to a table. "Pietro." She whispers as she looks at him. A head strap pins her head down and Pietro tries to run to her side, but is stopped by two guards. "No! Let me go! Wanda!" Wanda's eyes fill with tears.

      The guards yell at Pietro to calm down, but he doesn't. They give him one last warning, then one of them pulls out a cattle prod. Pietro's eyes widened with worry. "No! Don't!" But it's too late. The guard presses the end of the prod to Wanda's side. She screams in pain as the electricity courses through her body. Pietro begins to stop screaming, tears replacing the yelling.

      He is strapped into a chain and Strucker walks in. He stands in front of them with his hands behind his back. Stucker looks between Wanda and Pietro, then nods. "Begin." He turns and leaves the room. Oxygen masks are placed over Wanda and Pietro's faces. Their eyes begin to droop. The last thing Pietro sees before he passes out is a dark figure in the corner of the room watching him.

❖

      Pietro gasps awake. He frantically looks around and sees that he is back in his cell. He rushes to the wall he knows is between him and Wanda and knocks three times. He waits for a response, but it never comes.

      Pietro presses his forehead against the wall and sighs. This is his fault. He convinced Wanda to do this.

      The light in Pietro's room fades away. He turns around, and once again, he swears he sees someone in the shadows. They shrink back into the corner, but Pietro throws his hand out. "Wait. Please." The shadows pause. "You-" Pietro swallows hard. "You tried to help me."

      Pietro sees that the edge of the shadows widdle a bit deeper into his room. He suspects that whoever this person is, if it even is a person, doesn't want to talk. "I didn't understand then. But I do now. My sister, is she-"

      "She's fine." Pietro blinks in surprise at the voice. "What? How do you-" The person once again cuts him off. "She is sedated, but she is fine." Pietro creases his brows. "You're from Sokovia. Your accent, I can hear it." Pietro waits for a response.

      "I used to be. I'm nothing now. Just a shadow." The darkness shrinks back under Pietro's bed and disappears. He stands there for a moment. Who was that?

- author's notes -

So I haven't updated any of my other books in a while and I figured this might make up for it. It is it's own individual book, not apart of the Helix chronicles.